In the WO 2009/001241 A1 an organic light emitting diode (OLED) is described. The electroluminescent device comprises a substrate having a substrate electrode and a plurality of mutually spaced apart electrical shunt means, each being in direct electrical contact with the substrate electrode. Moreover, an electroluminescent layer stack is provided on top of the substrate electrode, and a counter electrode is arranged on top of the electroluminescent layer stack. A lid is attached to the substrate to hermetically enclose the electroluminescent layer stack between the lid and the substrate, thus, the lid forms an encapsulation means. The electroluminescent device further comprises a plurality of insulation spacer structures, each being arranged between the lid and the substrate in a position corresponding to the electrical shunt means.
The electrical shunt means are conductive structures which are provided in direct electrical contact with said substrate electrode in order to make the current distribution across the area of the electroluminescent device more homogenous during operation. These electrical shunt means are disclosed as metallic stripes, which may form a grid. In order to apply said electrical shunt means on the substrate electrode, different manufacturing processes are disclosed, generally basing on a material deposition technique. For example, screen printing or photolithography using a sufficiently thick (>30 μm) resist layer may be utilized. Alternatively, hot-melt inkjet printing, also sometimes referred to as “solid inkjet printing”, can be applied. When using hot-melt inkjet printing, printed patterns should be well defined and structures should have a suitable height, such as between 30 and 70 μm, and smooth, shallow edges having a contact angle to the surface, on which the spacer structures are printed of about 60° or less.
Unfortunately, the application of material deposition techniques or material printing techniques for manufacturing said electrical shunt means on the surface of the substrate electrode leads to different problems. The application of said manufacturing techniques is basically laborious and expensive.